Generation and evolution of mode-locked noise-

like square-wave pulses in a large-anomalous-

dispersion Er-doped ring fiber laser
Jun Liu,1 Yu Chen,1 Pinghua Tang,2 Changwen Xu,1 Chujun Zhao,1,2,* Han Zhang,1 and
Shuangchun Wen2
1
SZU-NUS Collaborative Innovation Center for Optoelectronic Science & Technology, Key Laboratory of
Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic
Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
2
Laboratory for Micro-/Nano- Optoelectronic Devices of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Electronics,
Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
*
chujunzhao@gmail.com

Abstract: In a passively mode-locked Erbium-doped fiber laser with large

anomalous-dispersion, we experimentally demonstrate the formation of
noise-like square-wave pulse, which shows quite different features from
conventional dissipative soliton resonance (DSR). The corresponding
temporal and spectral characteristics of a variety of operation states,
including Q-switched mode-locking, continuous-wave mode-locking and
Raman-induced noise-like pulse near the lasing threshold, are also
investigated. Stable noise-like square-wave mode-locked pulses can be
obtained at a fundamental repetition frequency of 195 kHz, with pulse
packet duration tunable from 15 ns to 306 ns and per-pulse energy up to 200
nJ. By reducing the linear cavity loss, stable higher-order harmonic mode-
locking had also been observed, with pulse duration ranging from 37 ns at
the 21st order harmonic wave to 320 ns at the fundamental order. After
propagating along a piece of long telecom fiber, the generated square-wave
pulses do not show any obvious change, indicating that the generated noise-
like square-wave pulse can be considered as high-energy pulse packet for
some promising applications. These experimental results should shed some
light on the further understanding of the mechanism and characteristics of
noise-like square-wave pulses.
©2015 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (140.0140) Lasers and laser optics; (140.3510) Lasers, fiber; (140.4050) Mode-
locked lasers.

References and links

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#230599 - $15.00 USD Received 11 Dec 2014; revised 5 Feb 2015; accepted 16 Feb 2015; published 2 Mar 2015
(C) 2015 OSA 9 Mar 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.006418 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6418
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1. Introduction
High energy square-wave pulses in nanosecond time scales have attracted considerable
attention due to their potential applications, including all-optical square-wave clocks, laser
micromachining, range finding, and optical sensing [1–5]. Passively mode-locked fiber lasers
are an ideal candidate to directly produce such kind of pulses, offering a compact and cost-
effective laser cavity associated with an excellent beam quality and flexible pulse duration.
This typical operation state of square-wave pulse exists in a fiber laser passively mode-locked
by either nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) technique [6–9] or figure of eight
configuration [10–12]. The square-wave pulse generation was primarily attributed to the
nonlinear polarization switching inside the laser cavity [6] or the dissipative soliton resonance
(DSR) [12]. Besides, the generation of square-wave pulse is theoretically and experimentally
demonstrated to be independent of the cavity dispersion [9, 12–16]. In the DSR region, the
square-wave pulses could increase their width indefinitely while keeping their amplitude
constant. High energy square-wave profile dissipative solitons in an all-normal-dispersion
fiber laser were obtained in [9], with the pulse duration tunable from 0.6 ns to 18.5 ns. Li et
al. demonstrated a square-wave pulse from 33.3 to 155.4 ns with maximum output pulse
energy of 79.5 nJ in the anomalous dispersion regime by varying the pump power [17]. It is
worth noting that these square-wave pulses were reported to have no internal fine structures
within the square profile packet, and therefore they maintain the pulse-to-pulse coherence.
However, this coherent square-wave pulse generation requires extremely rigorous cavity
parameter selections and is usually difficult to obtain.
Another similar noise-like square-wave pulse demonstrated more recently [18, 19]
exhibits nearly the same characteristic as that formed through DSR except that they lack or
partially lack a temporal coherence because of the bunch of short pulses with stochastic
duration, peak power and pulse number located in the square packet. These noise-like square-
wave pulses with great duration tuning flexibility can be easily obtained in a cavity with high

#230599 - $15.00 USD Received 11 Dec 2014; revised 5 Feb 2015; accepted 16 Feb 2015; published 2 Mar 2015
(C) 2015 OSA 9 Mar 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.006418 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6419
nonlinearity. In addition, their energy can also be increased to a large value and thus can be
potentially applied in many important areas, such as low spectral coherence interferometry,
micromachining, and supercontinuum (SC) generation [20, 21]. In particular, the detailed
nature of generation and evolution of noise-like pulse can provide a better understanding of
the fundamental physics for pulse transmission in nonlinear fiber-optic media. However, there
are few reports on the pulse evolution of the noise-like square-wave pulses up to now.
In this paper, we investigate the noise-like square-wave pulse generation and evolution in
a passively mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser based on the NPR technique. Stable noise-like
square-wave mode-locked pulses at the fundamental repetition frequency of 195 kHz are
obtained with maximum intra-cavity single pulse energy of 200 nJ. The square-wave pulse
width can be tuned from 15 ns to 306 ns by varying the pump power with fixed alignment of
the polarization controllers (PCs). By further increasing the pump power, stable noise-like
square-wave pulses in the cavity break up into two well-distinguished pulses, leading to a
second-order harmonic square-wave mode-locking regime, which is distinctly different from
the traditional DSR effect. By employing another laser cavity with lower loss, stable higher-
order harmonic mode-locking of noise-like square-wave pulses can be obtained by finely
adjusting the cavity parameters. At the same launched pump power of 805 mW, square-wave
pulses with various repetition rates from the fundamental one (195 kHz) to the 21st order
harmonic (4.1 MHz) had been obtained by adjusting the orientation of PCs, with pulse
duration ranging from 320 ns to 37 ns, respectively.
2. Experiment and results
2.1 The experimental setup
The experimental schematic diagram of the mode-locked fiber laser is shown in Fig. 1. The
ring laser cavity consists of a piece of 2.5 m Er-doped gain fiber (EDF, Liekki, Er110), two
sections of 500 m standard single-mode telecom fiber (SMF, G652 and G653), two sets of
PCs, a polarization-dependent isolator (PD-ISO), a fused 30% or 2% output coupler (OC), a
1480 nm high power single-mode Raman pump source with maximum output power of up to
10 W (KEOPSYS), and two 1480/1550 nm wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM)
couplers. The PD-ISO and two PCs, together of which operate as an artificial saturable
absorber, are responsible for the self-started stable mode locking of the fiber laser. The EDF
and the G652 SMF have a group velocity dispersion (GVD) of −9 ps/nm/km and 17 ps/nm/km
at 1550 nm, respectively, resulting in a large net cavity dispersion of ~-12 ps2.

Fig. 1. Experimental schematic of the mode-locked fiber laser for square-wave pulse
generation. WDM: wavelength division multiplexer; SMF: single mode fiber; PC: polarization
controller; PD-ISO: polarization-dependent isolator; OC: output coupler.

The output power from the Raman pump source was directly coupled into the EDF
through the 1480/1550 nm WDM coupler. Another similar WDM coupler was employed to
couple the unabsorbed pump power out of the cavity to eliminate the influence of the residual
pump power.

#230599 - $15.00 USD Received 11 Dec 2014; revised 5 Feb 2015; accepted 16 Feb 2015; published 2 Mar 2015
(C) 2015 OSA 9 Mar 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.006418 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6420
 An optical spectrum analyzer (Ando, AQ-6317B) and a real time oscilloscope with a
bandwidth of 4 GHz (Agilent Technol., DSO9404A) together with a 5 GHz photoelectric
detector (Thorlabs, SIR5) were simultaneously used to monitor the output spectrum and the
pulse train. Moreover, the radio frequency (RF) spectra were measured by a RF-spectrum
analyzer (Agilent, N9322C). Fine structures of the pulse profile were measured with a
commercial autocorrelator (FR-103-XL).
2.2 Different pulsed regimes of the mode-locked fiber laser
The output coupling ratio of the laser cavity was first set to be 30%. The laser can operate in
four different stable or quasi-stable lasing regimes around the threshold through the alignment
of PCs to vary the net cavity birefringence. These operating regimes include the conventional
soliton generation, Q-switched and continuous-wave mode-locking of square-wave pulses,
and Raman-induced noise-like pulses. At the launched pump power of ~40 mW, the
conventional soliton mode-locking regime can be initiated. The corresponding temporal trace
and spectrum are illustrated in Fig. 2(a) and Fig. 3, respectively.

Fig. 2. Temporal profiles for a variety of pulsed operating regimes at the lasing threshold. a:
conventional solitons; b: Q-switched mode-locking square-wave pulses; c: continuous-wave
mode-locking square-wave pulses; d: Raman-induced noise-like pulses.

The output spectrum shows clear sidebands and the autocorrelation trace of the
conventional solitons was measured to be a coherent sech2 profile without pedestal [22], as
shown in Fig. 4. The Q-switched and continuous-wave mode-locking of square-wave pulses
can also be observed, as shown in Fig. 2(b) and Fig. 2(c), respectively. An obvious feature in
both operating regimes is that the single pulse exhibits a square-shape profile on oscilloscope.
Both of the corresponding autocorrelation traces in Fig. 4 consist of a narrow spike riding on a
broad shoulder that extended over the entire scanning time window. The pedestal duration
was too long to be traced properly within the scanning time window of the available
autocorrelator, therefore exhibiting a square-shape profile. Both autocorrelation traces
indicate that the square-wave pulses at the Q-switched and continuous-wave mode-locking
possess random fine structures, well-known as the noise-like pulses. In addition, it is worth
noting that the output spectrum (see Fig. 3) and the autocorrelation trace for the Q-switched
mode-locking regime are randomly distributed in a particularly modulated envelope in
contrast to the relatively smooth profiles at the continuous-wave mode-locking regime, which
confirms that the intermediate and transitional state of Q-switched mode-locking is unstable
before the emergence of continuous-wave mode-locking. The formation of Q-switched mode-
locking is attributed to the birefringence-induced loss modulation at a low level of pump
power. The output spectrum of the continuous-wave mode-locking regime exhibits a much
smoother and broader profile without any sideband or other fine internal structure than that of
the conventional soliton operating regime, which is the other typical characteristic of the

#230599 - $15.00 USD Received 11 Dec 2014; revised 5 Feb 2015; accepted 16 Feb 2015; published 2 Mar 2015
(C) 2015 OSA 9 Mar 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.006418 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6421
noise-like pulses. In addition, the Raman-induced noise-like pulse with a ~2 μs long burst of
nanosecond envelope comprising picosecond-scale oscillations had also been observed, as
shown in Fig. 2(d). Similar experimental results have been recently reported in [23]. The
corresponding spectrum was largely broadened through the stimulated Raman scattering
effect resulting from the high nonlinearity in the cavity.

Fig. 3. Corresponding output spectra for the various operating regimes at the lasing threshold,
including the conventional mode-locked solitons (CS), Q-switched mode-locking square-wave
pulses (QS ML square), continuous-wave mode-locking square-wave pulses (CW ML square)
and Raman-induced noise-like pulses (Raman induced NL). Inset: zoomed spectrum of CS
operating regime.

Fig. 4. Corresponding autocorrelation traces for the various operating regimes at the lasing
threshold, including the conventional mode-locked solitons (CS), Q-switched mode-locking
square-wave pulses (QS ML square), and continuous-wave mode-locking square-wave pulses
(CW ML square). Inset: corresponding autocorrelation traces under a small scanning range.

2.3 Noise-like square-wave mode-locked pulses

Self-starting continuous-wave noise-like square-wave mode-locked pulses at the fundamental
repetition rate were obtained with a lasing threshold of ~43 mW. By fixing the PCs, the
square-wave pulse broadened with the pump strength while the corresponding pulse
amplitude remained constant. The evolution of pulse duration and average power on the

#230599 - $15.00 USD Received 11 Dec 2014; revised 5 Feb 2015; accepted 16 Feb 2015; published 2 Mar 2015
(C) 2015 OSA 9 Mar 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.006418 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6422
launched pump power for the particular arrangement of the PCs is shown in Fig. 5. It can be
seen that both the pulse width and average power increase almost linearly with the pump
power up to 1085 mW. A further increase of the pump power will render the system unstable
and ultimately evolves into the second-order harmonic square-wave mode-locking. This
situation is distinctly different from the DSR effect, where the pulse energy can be
accumulated infinitely to a large value without pulse breaking. Figure 6 depicts the temporal
evolution of the noise-like square-wave pulses at different pump powers, where the measured
pulse width broadened from 15 ns to 306 ns with the pump power increasing from 43 mW to
1085 mW. The fundamental pulse repetition rate is 195 kHz, corresponding to the total cavity
length, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is about 53 dB, as shown in Fig. 7. The evolution
of the lasing output spectrum at different pump powers is depicted in Fig. 8. The spectral
intensity increases slightly with the pump power while the 3 dB bandwidths of the spectra
remain nearly invariable. By keeping the pump power constant and slightly adjusting the
polarization controller under the stable mode-locking operating regime, the central
wavelength shifted in a small range of around ± 3 nm, and the spectrum shows no clearly
resolved peaks.
The stable self-starting noise-like square-wave pulses, in nanosecond time scale, were
generated based on the nonlinear polarization switching inside the laser cavity [6]. The
switching power depends on the gain and loss in the laser cavity, which ultimately determines
the peak power of square-wave pulses. Once the intra-cavity pulse power reaches the
switching power, the peak power will be clamped. Due to the intrinsic soliton formation and
peak power clamping effect in large-anomalous dispersion operating regime, pulse breaking
effect occurs and fine internal structures were found to exist inside the square-wave pulses.
The square-wave pulse broadened with the increasing pump power until the gain in the cavity
got saturated. The corresponding saturation pump power in our experiment is 1085 mW. The
whole lasing system will grow unstable after a further increase of the pump power, and
ultimately evolves into the second-order harmonic square-wave mode-locking.

Fig. 5. Measured square-wave pulse width and average output power as a function of the pump
power.

#230599 - $15.00 USD Received 11 Dec 2014; revised 5 Feb 2015; accepted 16 Feb 2015; published 2 Mar 2015
(C) 2015 OSA 9 Mar 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.006418 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6423
 Fig. 6. Evolution of the single square-wave pulse under different pump powers.

Fig. 7. RF spectrum of the mode-locked noise-like square-wave pulses.

To further investigate the noise-like square-wave pulse evolution, particularly on the

generation of higher-order harmonic mode-locking of square-wave pulses, we reduce the
cavity loss by substituting a 2% output coupler for the 30% one and thus the saturation pump
power is lowered correspondingly. Stable continuous-wave mode-locked square-wave pulses
at the fundamental frequency were obtained with the lasing threshold of ~30 mW. The square-
wave pulses stretched until the output power get saturated at the pump power of 805 mW.
Similarly, the second-order harmonic mode-locking occurred by further increasing the pump
power. Due to the much reduced cavity loss resulting from a smaller output coupling ratio, the

#230599 - $15.00 USD Received 11 Dec 2014; revised 5 Feb 2015; accepted 16 Feb 2015; published 2 Mar 2015
(C) 2015 OSA 9 Mar 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.006418 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6424
intra-cavity pulses experienced a larger nonlinearity and the polarization switching threshold
is lower.

Fig. 8. Measured output spectra at different pump powers.

With launched pump power fixed at 805 mW, the square-wave pulse packet can split into
two or more, subsequently leading to a peak power reduction, by proper adjustment of the
PCs. This makes the laser system operating in a higher-order harmonic square-wave mode-
locking regime. In our experiment, up to 21st order harmonic mode-locked noise-like square-
wave pulses at the repetition rate of 4.1 MHz was achieved through the PCs’ alignment to
vary the net cavity birefringence. The typical pulse trains of different order harmonic mode-
locking are shown in Fig. 9.

Fig. 9. Harmonic mode-locked square-wave pulse trains of different orders achieved at the
same pump power of 805 mW.

#230599 - $15.00 USD Received 11 Dec 2014; revised 5 Feb 2015; accepted 16 Feb 2015; published 2 Mar 2015
(C) 2015 OSA 9 Mar 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.006418 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6425
 The square-wave pulse duration ranged from 37 ns at the 21st order harmonic wave to 320
ns at the fundamental wave. The autocorrelation trace of the harmonic mode-locked square-
wave pulses was also characterized as a coherent peak located on a broad pedestal, indicating
that the harmonic mode-locked square-wave pulses were a similar type as the fundamental
mode-locked ones, known as the noise-like pulses. The RF spectrum of the 21st order
harmonic mode-locked square-wave pulses is shown in Fig. 10. The side-mode suppression
ratio is measured to be about 36 dB, which demonstrates a stable harmonic mode-locking.
The mutual evolution for higher-order harmonic mode-locking by aligning the PCs indicates
that that for a specific set of cavity parameters the peak-clamping effect could also be
imposed on noise-like square-wave pulses, similar to the mechanism occurring in the multi-
soliton formation [3, 24].
The propagation characteristics of the noise-like square-wave pulses obtained were
evaluated by launching it into a 10.6 km standard single mode telecom fiber. We observed no
difference on the square-wave pulse profile and spectrum before and after the propagation
except the pulse width increasing from 62.7 ns to 63.5 ns at the launched pump power of 180
mW, indicating that the so called noise-like square-wave pulse can be considered as a high-
energy pulse packet and thus be capable of being employed in many applications.

Fig. 10. RF spectrum of the 21st order harmonic mode-locked square-wave pulses.

3. Conclusion
In conclusion, the generation and evolution of noise-like square-wave pulses from a mode-
locked Er-doped fiber laser operating in a large-anomalous-dispersion regime were
experimentally demonstrated. This type of noise-like square-wave pulse distinctly differs
from the conventional DSR effect. There exist several random internal short pulses within the
noise-like square-wave profile. Stable noise-like square-wave mode-locked pulses were
achieved at a fundamental repetition frequency of 195 kHz, with pulse duration tunable from
15 ns to 306 ns by increasing the pump power, and the maximum intra-cavity single pulse
energy reaches up to 200 nJ. This fundamental square-wave mode-locked pulse can evolve
into a stable higher-order harmonic mode-locking of noise-like square-wave pulses by
adjusting the cavity parameters, which is attributed to the peak-clamping effect imposed on
the noise-like square-wave pulses. Undistorted propagation properties in a long traditional
telecom fiber demonstrate that the noise-like square-wave pulses have a potential use in many
applications as a high-energy pulse packet. The experimental results should possibly facilitate
further research on the mechanism and characteristics of nanosecond square-wave pulses.

#230599 - $15.00 USD Received 11 Dec 2014; revised 5 Feb 2015; accepted 16 Feb 2015; published 2 Mar 2015
(C) 2015 OSA 9 Mar 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.006418 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6426
Acknowledgments
This work is partially supported by the National 973 Program of China (Grant No.
2012CB315701), the National Natural Science Fund Foundation of China (Grant Nos.
61435010 and 61475102) and Natural Science Foundation of SZU (Grant No. 201453).

#230599 - $15.00 USD Received 11 Dec 2014; revised 5 Feb 2015; accepted 16 Feb 2015; published 2 Mar 2015
(C) 2015 OSA 9 Mar 2015 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | DOI:10.1364/OE.23.006418 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6427